


don't you dare look back

by afrocurl



Category: Selfie (TV)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Post-Canon Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-08 23:20:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3227285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afrocurl/pseuds/afrocurl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite all that Eliza had learned about one Henry Higgs, he could still surprise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	don't you dare look back

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thewaltzingdead](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewaltzingdead/gifts).



> Happy Birthday M! You know why this is your present, I hope.

Sunday morning Eliza looked at her hair and nearly yelled so loudly the neighbors would hear it.

“What the fuck have I done?”

-

Despite the fact that she was “Team Budget”, her foray with the scissors required a trip to see Jean Paul. Even if she was her own role model, her co-workers would not appreciate Eliza showing up as a hot mess twice in the last few months. (G-d she wished that the karaoke party could be burned from everyone’s retinas.)

Freddie simply smiled and offered encouragement, but not the kind that Henry did. Freddie’s was like, “Smokin’ hot babe,” and “Gorgeous” whereas Henry made a point to say “Your haircut will make you more approachable to people who don’t frequent bars and clubs or fashion themselves part of the Fug Nation.”

Why Eliza preferred Henry’s to Freddie’s, she didn’t want to investigate further because the answer would remind her of a night she wanted to forget even if she had had all the bravado she usually carried when it came to men.

-

Monday morning meant that Eliza had one of her usual conversations with Charmonique. Even though Henry had helped her and Kevin with skateboarding, Eliza hadn’t felt that she could text Charmonique and asked.

“How was your weekend?” she said now, as the rest of the Kinder Kare employees walked around the reception desk.

“Oh, you know, Henry lied - like most men - but Kevin seemed to have a good time.”

“Wait, what? Henry lied?”

“Yeah, you heard me. Henry can’t skate to save his life. Look at the cast he has when he gets here.”

That was useful information that Eliza kept for later. “Oh sure, Charmonique. My weekend was fab, if you couldn’t tell. See the new hair?”

“Not extensions. Impressive. But, it looks too Gwyneth for you. Always figured you were a Duchess of Cambridge type.”

“You think I had Middleton hair? Thank you, that’s the best compliment I’ll ever get on my old hair.”

“If you say so, Eliza. Now, I have work to do, so shoo!”

-

It was the slow season for most of her products - Cold and Flu season still in full swing, but without the need to press more being sent to stores - and so it was impossible for her to do anything but think about Henry now.

He had lied about skating. Not shocking. Henry had the look that said he couldn’t appreciated thrusting his hips if his life depended on it. But, Henry had been making a point to improve Eliza and he had given her a false sense of who he was.

It was time for a little payback, she thought.

-

 _Can I come eat my lunch over your trash can?_ she texted Henry, knowing full well that she could burst into his office and ask the same even if it meant Henry’s secret was out of the bad earlier.

She wanted him to keep it, just a bit longer.

Throwing him some measure of respectability before she shattered it into tiny pieces. 

Even if Henry didn’t think she was learning how to interact with people, she was learning how to interact with him.

-

_Share my trash can, if you like._

-

She walked into Henry’s office and saw that he was not at his usual position behind his desk; rather he was sitting on the couch looking like he was trying to be seductive (funny and awkward for him) but only looking constipated (his almost default if she had to tell anyone else).

“Hello,” he said, with an air of feinted casualness. It wasn’t fooling Eliza, but she also knew that Henry wanted to feel like he was making an attempt at her own ideas of his social life so she let him have the moment.

“Heard you had an interesting weekend.” She kept her eyes on his face, so that she didn’t have to see any of the evidence of his falls. It was more difficult than she thought.

“I did. I learned numerous things.” He went back to eating his lunch, as if he was trying to avoid talking about it. Eliza knew the cues to avoid talking about things when she was young, but that didn’t mean she’d let it slip.

Instead, she laughed - a short one that had the potential for something bigger later - and said, “Wasn’t Kevin supposed to learn something? Wasn’t he the one who should have a bruise and not you?”

“He did learn something. But that doesn’t mean I can’t learn anything either. We as humans can always learn.” Slowly there was a small smile curling on Henry’s face and Eliza knew - like she knew all her followers and acquaintances - that Henry was up to something. Like before, she left it alone, wanting to watch Henry’s reaction as the rest of lunch went along.

Eliza knew that what Henry said was true; she felt as if she was still processing her own realization that she was her own role model. “Hmm,” was all with which she replied, however. Henry didn’t need to know quite how well he’d done.

“Wouldn’t you like to know what I learned?”

“Does it involve you and Julia?” It was a low blow, but she had to know where this was actually going before she followed through on where this might be going.

“Not in the way you’re thinking.” He ate another bit of his lunch as if to ignore what was between them right now. 

“And what way is that?” This faux-casual she was going for might be a new low even for her, but she needed to find out something and she was going to get it. She took another sip of her drink and then looked back at Henry.

“I think she and I are done.”

“But that wasn’t what you learned?” She had her voice lilt up to prove the point even more and looked away before she drew her attention back to him.

“No, it wasn’t. I learned about my reaction to your little display the other week.”

“Which display?”

“The one where you were naked in front of me.”

“What did you learn about my streaking from a skatepark?”

Henry stayed silent for a bit, which allowed Eliza to take her protein drink and start to have it. “I learned that I’d like to see that again,” he whispered.

“Come again?”

This time, Henry said it louder. “I said, I’d like to see that again.”

“You want to see me naked?” Henry nodded. “But you know I’m with Freddie?”

“And Freddie is a fool who you’re only back with because you fell into a bad habit?”

“And who’s fault is that, Mister Reject Me at the Karaoke Party?”

Henry gasped - actually had that huge intake of breathe and all - and said, “What?”

“When you didn’t come back to see me at the karaoke party, I went back to him. So, your fault.”

There was a nearly doe-eyed look on Henry’s face that made Eliza want to laugh, but she realized if that happened, she’d spill her shake all over her outfit and probably Henry’s rug.

“So, you’re saying I could have been seeing you naked for weeks had I come back?”

“Yes.”

In an instant Henry was crossing from the couch to the trashcan, flung her drink in the trashcan and started to kiss her. If not for the fact that Eliza knew she had a ninety-four percent rate of success in terming nakedness into a thing, she’d have been surprised.

But instead, she let him kiss her, because it was better than she imagined (and much better than Freddie).

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to **AbsolutelyIsis** for the beta; any remaining mistakes are my own.
> 
> Title grabbed from "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the Moon, which is feeling like an Eliza and Henry song right about now.


End file.
